Recently, I successfully appealed and overturned a ruling handed down against me by the State of Massachusetts. After being found at fault for a minor, non-injury traffic accident, I challenged the decision, hoping to reverse it and prevent an increase in my insurance premium. Perhaps even more surprising than my unexpected win was the fact that all through the process, the state — and its oft-reviled bureaucracy — went out of its way to be fair, courteous, and forgiving.

It got me to thinking: Has government been forced to become more customer friendly because of the high standards set by private-sector customer service? After all, it wasn’t so long ago that letters or phone calls to virtually any state agency might simply go unanswered. (And truth be told, the private sector often wasn’t much better.)

After my fender-bender, months went by in which missed deadlines, misdelivered letters, and my inattention were all forgiven by the state as it set, and reset, hearings for me. They could have said, “No day in court for you, pal. You had your chances.” But they didn’t. Why?

Somewhere along the line, first in business, then in government, attitudes changed and the customer/taxpayer came to the forefront. HBS certainly played a role with its studies of customer-relationships management. The “service-profit chain” that Professors Heskett, Sasser, and Schlesinger made prominent in the 1980s contributed new thinking, as did Professor Robert Kaplan’s “balanced scorecard.”

And alumni like former IRS commissioner Charles Rossotti (MBA ’64) brought customer service best practices from the private sector to government (http://www.alumni.hbs.edu/bulletin/2000/april/qanda.html).

Of course, a new generation of HBS faculty such as Frances Frei, Youngme Moon, and others are still finding plenty of ways that companies frustrate their customers. These days, health care, airlines, and telecommunications, to name a few, are sectors that can drive consumers up the wall. Are you, valued customer, treated well, or at least better than you used to be, in both the public and private sectors? Or does lip service too often stand in for customer service?

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